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Claiming the Featured Snippet for the Keyword "Peninsula Desk" With a Micro-SEO Strategy℠ Light:

McDowell-Craig SEO Case Study

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At a Glance

Founded in Santa Fe Springs, CA, in 1946–and remaining firmly rooted in the Golden State ever since–McDowell-Craig is a fourth-generation furniture manufacturer. To this day, they’re fueled by the same mid-century principle on which the company was created: Build it ourselves and build it to last. More than 75 years later, all their products are still designed, engineered, and manufactured in their Santa Fe Springs factory using locally sourced materials. The result? Superior school and office furniture that can withstand decades of abuse.

Wes McDowell

Co-CEO at McDowell-Craig

“BSM wasted no time in overhauling our entire site, which was overdue by a decade for a complete redesign. Once they were done, it was amazing how quickly we started climbing the rankings.”

Challenges

When McDowell-Craig initially approached us, they were overdue for a complete web redesign. The site was about a decade old and contained tons of images, which made it incredibly slow. Furthermore, it didn’t comply with Google’s most recent Core Web Vitals algorithm update. Lastly, its Domain Trust (DT) was currently 2 out of 100, which meant there were few domains linking back to it.

Our Founder & President Chris Raulf, and COO, Daniel Burns, conducted a comprehensive audit and identified a few additional issues. For example, we discovered most of the site’s organic search traffic was from branded queries. That means most visitors included McDowell-Craig references in their keyword phrases. Put another way, the site wasn’t attracting customers who weren’t already aware of the company. With all that in mind, our biggest challenges included:

  1. Redesigning the entire website so it would be more functional and user-friendly
  2. Deploying both on- and off-page tactics to help the site meet Google’s latest standards
  3. Establishing McDowell-Craig as the premier provider of American-made school and office furniture
Before getting to work, Chris and Daniel flew to California to tour McDowell-Craig’s manufacturing facility. While there, they met the three generations who were running the company. They also gained a deeper understanding of all that was at stake, and they learned that McDowell-Craig only wanted to work with an agency as dedicated to SEO as they were to furniture. Finally, the client shared their biggest concern and the biggest challenge we would undoubtedly face: ensuring they stood out from other school and office furniture manufacturers.

Solutions

We wasted no time in updating the client’s website. In addition to redesigning and optimizing every page, our tech team launched an innovative tool that allows shoppers to visualize hundreds of different product variations in real time. No other furniture manufacturer in the world offered such a nifty feature!
As for climbing the rankings, we decided McDowell-Craig’s Peninsula Desk product page was a prime candidate for a Micro-SEO Strategy℠ Light. This is a simplified version of our hyper-focused approach, which involves creating the best page on the web about the given subject, so it has to draw Google’s attention.
The identified page was a tremendous low-hanging fruit opportunity for the keyword “peninsula desks.” Consequently, it could climb the rankings with a bit of help.

To ensure the Micro-SEO Strategy℠ Light would be successful, we:

  1. Created a wireframe outlining the layout of the new page
  2. Obtained approval of the wireframe from the client
  3. Created optimized content for all the text portions on the layout
  4. Incorporated images, videos, CTAs, FAQs, and infographics
  5. Optimized the metadata on the back end of the page
  6. Updated the page’s schema and internal linking

We primarily used SE Ranking’s tools to deploy this Micro-SEO Strategy℠ Light. Since the keyword was not overly competitive, we felt confident we could apply a modified version of our proprietary methodology to help the page climb the rankings. With the metrics that SE Ranking provided–e.g., difficulty and search volume–we could hone our approach.

We also used SE Ranking’s Competitor Analysis Tool to see what other furniture manufacturers were saying about peninsula desks, so we could ensure McDowell-Craig had the best content on the subject. And once the new page was launched, we applied the On-Page SEO Checker to identify any gaps in the strategy that needed bridging.
We supported the launch with a press release and several posts on various social media platforms. As we watched the page climb the SERPs, we continued publishing content so that McDowell-Craig could maintain its momentum and ultimately achieve their SEO goals.

The Results

While it’s virtually impossible to address all the algorithm’s ranking signals by deploying a single strategy–no one knows precisely what they are–we were confident our hyper-focused approach had touched on the most important ones. Thankfully, Google seemed to agree. The search engine giant wasted no time recognizing McDowell-Craig’s updated page on peninsula desks.
Google went so far as to consider it the most valuable content on the subject and created a featured snippet for it. Feature snippets are extended search results that Google places at the top of the page. For a page to get a featured snippet, the algorithm must consider it the most helpful information for users searching for its related keywords.

Key Metrics

Check out these incredible metrics we captured over the course of the campaign:
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The Slot That McDowell-Craig Finally Achieved on the SERPs
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The Number of Different Product Variations Shoppers Could Visualize on the Updated Site
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The Average Monthly Search Volume for the Keyword We Targeted
The new page also shot up in the traditional rankings. Whereas McDowell-Craig’s original piece of content on peninsula desks hovered between pages 2 and 3 on the SERPs, it made its way to position zero after the Micro-SEO Strategy℠ Light.
Although Google continues to modify its algorithm and reorganize the SERPs, the page consistently ranks in the top 3 positions, ahead of some of the biggest players in the industry.

About Boulder SEO Marketing

BSM is a boutique SEO agency that helps small businesses increase organic traffic. Using our proprietary Micro-SEO Strategies℠, we can deliver real results in record time. Since 2009, we’ve been helping clients climb the rankings. Unlike some digital marketing agencies that overpromise and underdeliver by claiming to “do it all,” we focus solely on search engine optimization. A jack of all trades might get your site off the ground, but you’ll need specialized tools to get to the top of the search results!

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